The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Many current computing devices, including portable devices, support software applications for displaying two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) digital maps that include graphical representations of various types of objects. For example, a digital map may include various types of markers, icons, structures and geographic data such as topographical data, street data, urban transit information, and traffic data. Further, the geographic data may be schematic or based on photography, such as satellite imagery.
Some of these applications simulate lighting effects by shading 3D representations of buildings using shadow mapping. To this end, the applications simulate the presence of a virtual light source in a certain fixed position.